Montreal’s first three safe injection sites got an official inauguration on Monday, one week after first opening.

Quebec Public Health Minister Lucie Charlebois and Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre were on hand for the official launch of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve’s Dopamine, downtown’s Cactus and a mobile unit dubbed L’Anonyme, which will operate in the downtown area.

“We are very proud,” said Julien Montreuil, assistant director of L’Anonyme, which offers clean needles and addiction resources, but now workers can also help prevent overdoses.

Cactus director Louis Letellier de St-Just said the launch of the sites serves as recognition of the good that harm-reduction can do.

“Two fixed sites and one mobile unit has opened this week and we are very pleased about the function, people came in and there was no really difficult issue that happened,” said Montreal Publish Health director Richard Masse.

Spectre de Rue, which currently operates a clean-needle exchange, is scheduled to begin operating as a safe injection site in October.

That, however, has some parents of children who attend school nearby worried. Charlebois said that the fourth safe injection site will not be moved but that she understands parents’ concerns. She said she is open to adjustment and hopes to stay in touch with parents to assuage their fears.

“There’s already a site in Vancouver that proves to us that it’s going well and that it’s a success story,” she said. “I don’t see why it couldn’t work here. The people go out, shoot themselves up outside without any supervision so now we’re going to be around the people that need our services and it’s going to be more secure for the entire population.”

Health Canada approved the sites in May and include a mobile unit believed to be the only one of its kind in North America.

Outreach workers say Montreal has about 4,000 users who inject drugs.

At a safe injection site on Berger St. and Ste. Catherine St. , just blocks from Cactus, there are 10 injection cubicles set up where clients bring in their own drugs. Right now, the substance is not analyzed, but the nurses watch them as they inject to ensure they don't suffer any adverse reaction.

“We need to be able to recognize that those people need help and that most of them want to stop and at some point part of them will be able to completely stop and lead a normal life,” said Masse, adding that each site served about 10 IV drug users a day in their first week.

The exact numbers will be unveiled in September.



With files from The Canadian Press